Condition Report

Condition Report

The Case was in fairly bad condition. There were many parts damaged, cracked and missing. Because it was beyond my skills I had the case professionally restored by Raymond Robinson of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh; a beautiful job well done.

In dismantling this organ, from the very beginning I could see that I was going to enjoy it. It is so totally different from the usual horizontal reed pan system of the Estey and others with which I was familiar. The mutes are controlled by attachment to the stop mechanism by cat gut originally but were replaced in times past by a more modern nylon string which is quite adequate for the job. This organ was made in 1883 and part of its history included the use, as shims under the iron keyboard frame brace, of entry tickets to a Grand Cosmic Fete at the Balls Bridge Grounds in Dublin on the 5th September in 1893. This was presumably to prevent vibration rattles. Amazing the history the old organ gives up.

The Interior

This organ clearly had spent much of its life in a house which had an open coal fire. It was filled with coal soot and so a lot of work was needed to clean all the parts which had become caked in it. Otherwise the organ works were in fairly good condition but in need of a full overhaul and re-build. The bellow obviously needed to be re-covered.